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DISASTER
& SOCIAL CRISIS RESEARCH NETWORK - NEWSLETTER 5 |
Social Interests and the Assessment of the Depleted Uranium
Bombing Consequences (A Continuation of the Yugoslav Complex Disaster Diary) by
Vera Vratusa (-Zunjic) vvratusa@f.bg.ac.yu
In
the ongoing debate on the use of a nuclear waste radioactive and toxic
substance called depleted uranium (DU) for coating of military appliances and
ammunition in general, and on the consequences of its use during the 1999
bombing of Yugoslavia in particular, two opposed standpoints have crystallised.
They are grounded in easily detectable opposed social interests.
The
first is espoused by experts close to the war industry and military authorities
of NATO member states that ordered production of such weapons, tested them in
their own countries, and have so far used them in military operations in Iraq,
Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) and Yugoslavia. They are praising its enhanced
piercing power, denying or minimising the existence of risk to human health,
especially of the Gulf and Balkan veterans, and belittling its environment
pollution threat. The Peace Stabilisation Force Coalition Press Information
Office in B&H in its January 4, 2001 press statement, underlined that the
International Committee on Radiation Protection (ICRP) does not list DU as a
health hazard and that it is 40% less radioactive than naturally occurring
Uranium. The Stabilization Force (SFOR) representatives concluded that they do
not believe that either the troops serving within SFOR or the civilian
population in B&H were at risk from DU Ammunition (cpic_mediaops@sfor.nato.int).
They
failed to mention that a U.S. Navy document (Pacific Missile Test Centre Cruise
Missile Recovery Instruction, COMPMTCINST 88001), which dates from May 14,
1984, reveals that the US authorities were fully aware of the radiological
hazard risks of DU used in tested Tomahawk missile tips long before the DU
shelling of Iraq, B&H and Yugoslavia. The instructions namely stipulated
that recovery teams must use radiological protection clothing, gloves,
respirators, and dosimeters (http://www.iacenter.org/).
Martin Meissonnier, Frederic Loore and Roger Trilling even produced evidence
concerning the Pentagon's knowledge that some of its armour-piercing shells and
bombs contained substances more environmentally menacing than the "natural"
DU, repeatedly defended in public as "safe" (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Europe/2001-01/pentagon290101.shtm).
Thee United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) confirmed that plutonium was
found in depleted uranium ammunition fired in Kosovo and Metohija (K&M)
(http://un.org/News/dh/latest/page2.html#30).
European
and American scientists who investigated for United Nations Environment Programmme
just 11 of the some 80 DU-shelled sites in K&M indirectly helped NATO
authorities by reporting on March 13, 2001 that depleted uranium contamination
was not widespread in K&M and hence presented no significant risk to
health. They could not nevertheless conceal their concern that the drinking
water could be contaminated as the uranium dissolves and infiltrates into the
groundwater. They suggested therefore that water should be monitored and the
shelled sites cleaned up (latestnews@newscientist.com).
An
important reason for the denial of the link between DU ammunition and cancer
incidence by NATO member states' authorities and even by some EU and UN
agencies heavily dependent on their funding, is to continue with the cheap
disposal of nuclear waste and to avoid criminal charges and payment of tens of
billions of dollars for health care, compensations and reparations.
The
second interested standpoint is upheld by the experts close to victims of the
DU "enriched" weapons among the NATO ordinary soldiers themselves and
especially the bombed civilian population. They are emphasising both
theoretically predictable and empirically registered - immediate and protracted
- disastrous consequences of their military use instead of its more expensive
safe storage or its use for peaceful energy production. Michel Chossudovsky
thus quotes a renowned radiologist Dr. Rosalie Bertell : "When used in
war, the depleted uranium (DU) bursts into flame […] releasing a deadly
radioactive aerosol of uranium, unlike anything seen before. It can kill
everyone in a tank. This ceramic aerosol is much lighter than uranium dust. It
can travel in air tens of kilometres from the point of release, or be stirred
up in dust and re-suspended in air with wind or human movement. It is very
small and can be breathed in by anyone: a baby, pregnant woman, the elderly,
the sick. This radioactive ceramic can stay deep in the lungs for years,
irradiating the tissue with powerful alpha particles within about a 30 micron
sphere, causing emphysema and/or fibrosis. The ceramic aerosol can also be
swallowed and do damage to the gastrointestinal tract. In time, it penetrates
the lung tissue and enters into the blood stream. ...It can also initiate cancer
or promote cancers which have been initiated by other carcinogens". In
this article, entitled "Low Intensity Nuclear War", Chossudovsky also
points out that according to official records, some 1800 Balkans
"peacekeepers" (Bosnia, Croatia and K&M) suffer from health
ailments related to DU radiation. Assuming the same level of risk (as a
percentage of population), the numbers of civilians throughout former
Yugoslavia affected by DU radiation would be in the tens of thousands. He cites
British scientist Roger Coghill who suggests that "throughout the Balkan
region, there will be an extra 10,150 deaths from cancer because of the use of
DU." (http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/choss/dep.htm)
Yugoslav
army experts reported that radiation levels in a significant number of the 112
areas -that were bombarded with 29,561 DU antitank shells and the great
majority of which were concentrated in K&M - were from several tens to
several thousands times higher than what is considered safe. They at first
insisted, however, that all accessible contaminated areas near the
administrative border with K&M were marked, that no soldier who served in
K&M has shown evidence of contamination, and that among the local
population which was instructed to take precautionary measures there has been
no cases of illnesses reported (Alessio, Vinci, CNN Belgrade Bureau Chief, Web
posted on January 11, 2001 at http://europe.cnn.com/EUROPE/) . One of the reasons for
such restraint on the side of Yugoslav authorities could have been the desire
not to sow panic among the population and maybe to prevent panic's negative
effects on tourism in bombarded areas.
An
increasing number of media report a 200% augmentation in the incidence of
leukaemia and other forms of tumors among civilians in DU shelled area near
Kosovska Mitrovica in comparison to the situation in 1998 (News B2-92, January
10, 2001). The evidence on the victims of "unknown disease" among
soldiers that served in K&M ("Novosti", February 21, 2001),
compelled the army spokesperson to admit in the Yugoslav main newspaper
"Politika" on March 6, 2001 that some people already died and that
many more were ill.
No
doubt still much needs to be learned about how DU affects human health and
environment in combination with other cancerogenous and mutagenous factors like
toxic chemical and/or bacteriological aggressives. Some scientists voiced the
opinion at the Athens conference that toxic pollution may be worse than DU (http://www.ekathimerini.com/news/content.asp?id=68228)
It is also beyond any doubt, that the clean up, curing, monitoring and
legislative work prosecuting previous and forbidding future use of DU in war
industry must begin immediately and last as long as necessary.
Professor
Vladimir Ajdacic, now retired nuclear physicist, developed a method for the
detection of submicrogram quantities of uranium isotopes in human urine even
ten years after the exposure. He also developed a safe and cheap method for
their removal from the human organism. Prof. Ajdacic appeals to people of good
will, since the NATO authorities are denying any responsibility, to help him
get access to a mass spectrometer and thus enable him to contribute to curing
of people suffering from the effects of ionising radiation (vlajda@yubc.net ).